Pre-service Language Teacher Education Research Articles

Video-mediated collaborative lesson planning in virtual exchange among transnational teams of pre-service language teachers

Abstract Virtual exchange (VE) projects in pre-service language teacher education are increasingly being recognized as an innovative practice due to their affordances for providing teacher learning opportunities in technology-rich environments. This study aims to report these opportunities based on results from a VE project consisting of diverse teacher education activities, including lectures, webinars, asynchronous tasks, and synchronous video-mediated interactions. This project provides a medium for pre-service teachers to collaboratively design a lesson to be implemented in hybrid language learning environments. We specifically deal with the video-mediated interactions of the transnational groups of pre-service language teachers using multimodal conversation analysis (CA) as the research methodology and investigate VE phases to explore how their interactions become consequential for the final pedagogical design. The findings show that the pre-service teachers retrospectively orient to shared practices in the earlier phases of the VE project, and the deployment of retrospective orientation as an interactional resource creates interactional space for collaborative decision-making related to their pedagogical designs. We argue that tracking the video-mediated pedagogical interactions of the pre-service teachers using CA is a methodological innovation that allows researchers to collect interactional evidence for the emergent teacher learning opportunities. The findings bring new insights to the role of the technology-mediated settings (e.g. VEs and telecollaboration) in language learning, teaching, and teacher education and in bridging different cultures, curricula, and physical spaces.

The influence of ChatGPT on thinking skills and creativity of EFL student teachers: a narrative inquiry

ABSTRACT There is an urgent need in the educational community to explore the potential impact of advanced language models powered by artificial intelligence, such as ChatGPT, on thinking skills and creativity. These models hold significant promise for enhancing teaching and learning, but it is crucial to investigate their potential effects on these critical areas of cognitive development. This study employs a narrative inquiry approach, utilising weekly written narratives and qualitative interviews for analysis, to explore and understand student teachers’ experiences, perceptions, and reflections on using ChatGPT in their teaching practices. Exploring the experiences and perspectives of 12 English student teachers, this research scrutinises the influence of ChatGPT on the development of thinking skills and creativity during the practicum part of a teacher education programme. Through narratives and interviews the study uncovers the benefits, challenges, and strategies for optimising the use of ChatGPT in pre-service language teacher education. Key findings reveal the importance of human-computer co-creation, engaging in critical analysis, and fostering collaboration to maximise the educational benefits of ChatGPT. These insights contribute to the ongoing discourse on the effective integration of AI in teacher education and offer practical recommendations for educators and students navigating the complex interplay between AI tools and independent thinking.

Teaching Summative Assessment: A Curriculum Analysis of Pre-Service Language Teacher Education in Sweden and Finland

The purpose of this study is to investigate the curricular manifestation of summative assessment literacy in language pre-service teacher education at three universities in Sweden and Finland through multiple case studies. Data sources included program guidelines, course curricula, and study guides. A thematic approach was used to analyze the data based on a theoretical framework involving conceptual understandings, skills, and dispositions in summative assessment. The results indicate that all programs emphasize the basic assessment concepts such as validity and alignment and using assessment to inform teaching and learning. However, compared with formative assessment, summative assessment receives less attention in the curriculum. There are differences in addressing summative assessment through stand-alone and embedded courses and in the literacy areas covered. Implications for teacher education to address summative aspects of assessment in line with teachers’ tasks in schools are offered.

When big ideas meet critical thinking in lesson study: Insights from a pre-service language teacher education course

This article reports a classroom-based inquiry in which a group of pre-service language teachers were guided to engage in a lesson study project focusing on the incorporation of the framework of big ideas into language teaching. Specifically, the study zooms in on the student teachers’ exercise and development of critical thinking (CT) through the lesson study process. Relying on data from semi-structured interviews and classroom artifacts, the findings reveal that the introduction of big ideas in lesson study served as a crucial knowledge base for the participants’ pedagogical sense-making, thus contributing to their CT. The process of lesson study, characterized by a progressive structure, tailored scaffolding, and constructive feedback, also facilitated their development of CT skills and dispositions, which in turn contributed to their understanding and application of the big idea framework within the lesson study process. While the participants encountered some negative feelings in the process (e.g. due to the competitive atmosphere brought by the ‘same topic and different design’ arrangement), they tried to turn such emotions into a stimulating source for their CT growth and professional learning. In light of the research results, pedagogical implications for teaching and teacher education were put forward in the end.

Probing pre-service language teachers’ emotional experiences through lesson study: a Macau study

ABSTRACT The present study investigates the emotional experiences of seven student teachers through the process of lesson study in a pre-service language teacher education course at a university in Macau. Drawing on data from semi-structured interviews, individual reflections, and observational notes, the study reveals a variety of emotions experienced by the participants at different stages of the lesson study, including group lesson planning, micro-teaching, and collaborative and individual reflections. These different emotions served as a rich source of agency and activism for the student teachers, who developed both cognitively and emotionally in this process. In light of these findings, the paper calls for teacher educators to incorporate lesson study as a cognitively and emotionally contested site for pre-service teachers‘ professional learning. Different emotions and their regulation strategies should be considered for open discussion and explicit instruction in second language teacher education programmes. Research attention should be especially directed towards emotional dissonance among different participants (e.g., student teachers and teacher educators) in teacher education programmes.

Cultivating CT-oriented teachers in pre-service teacher education: what is there and what is missing?

ABSTRACT Despite a plethora of studies on how to teach critical thinking (CT) in different subject classrooms, there is limited research on how teachers foster their CT and learn to teach CT through pre-service teacher education. Such a gap gives impetus to the present study, which seeks to examine to what extent and how a group of student teachers are prepared to become CT-oriented teachers in a Hong Kong-based pre-service language teacher education programme. Adopting a qualitative research approach and informed by a tripartite conceptual framework (i.e. coverage, coherence, and applicability), the study explored student teachers’ perceptions and experiences via in-depth interviews and relevant documents, supplemented by data gathered from language teacher educators in the programme. The findings reveal a rich yet unbalanced coverage of CT instruction, the transferability of CT learning to its teaching, as well as the rhetoric-reality gap in developing CT-related pedagogy in the programme. In light of the findings, practical implications at classroom and curricula levels are drawn to facilitate the integration of CT into teacher education programmes.

Technology in Language Education Course: Operationalizing TPCK in Preservice Language Teacher Education

This study examines the experiences and attitude of the first cohort of students who took a discipline-focused educational technology course in a teacher education institution. This course, Technology in Language Education, utilize Technological, Pedagogical, Content Knowledge (TPCK) framework to train 107 preservice teachers to utilize and innovate with technological tools. The results of the post-evaluation questionnaires answered by 58 of these preservice teachers suggest the achievement of both the program and course learning outcomes. In the follow-up surveys conducted after practicum and during their first year of teaching, evidence of knowledge and skill transfer were expressed. Furthermore, lesson plans evaluated using Harris, Grandgenett, and Hofer's (2010) TPACK-Based Technology Integration Rubric imply the students' fulfillment of the learning outcomes of the course.

Maximizing the Potential of Reflective Practice in Pre-Service Language Teacher Education: The Issue of Authenticity

Reflective practice (RP) has been widely promoted in many second language teacher education programs to foster pre-service teachers’ pedagogical competence. However, the effectiveness of RP has often been questioned and challenged due to its lack of authenticity in practice. This Viewpoint paper focuses on the issue of authenticity of RP and how it can manifest and shape the complex process of learning to teach. Specifically, the paper proposes a tentative framework with practical tools and strategies for the design and implementation of authentic RP. The framework emphasizes the context, content, and process dimension of authenticity in both RP instruction and assessment, where student teachers can gradually develop their reflective abilities and learn how to integrate RP into their future classroom practice. The paper also outlines directions for future research on RP in second language teacher education.

The other side of the coin: A socio-cultural analysis of pre-service language teachers’ learning to teach critical thinking

Informed by a socio-cultural perspective, this study investigated how two student teachers developed their CT-oriented pedagogies in a pre-service language teacher education program in Hong Kong. Drawing on multiple sources of data including semi-structured interviews, relevant documents, and informal communication, the findings revealed the participants’ growing pedagogical knowledge and competence in CT teaching, influenced by various forms of mediation – i.e., object-regulated, other-regulated, and self-regulated – afforded in the situated context. The gap between the curriculum's goal and its implementation was identified as a crucial factor that impeded their learning to teach CT in the program. The paper concludes with practical implications that can help integrate CT into pre-service teacher education programs with a view to preparing future teachers with a high level of CT and CT-focused pedagogies.

Expectations for Training Mentors: Insights from a Preservice Language Teacher Education Program

Expectations for Training Mentors: Insights from a Preservice Language Teacher Education Program

Student teachers’ knowledge production processes within socially just educational principles and practices in Brazil

ABSTRACT This article analyses how themes and problematisations concerning social justice presented in a pre-service English language teacher education programme in São Paulo, Brazil, resonate in student teachers’ knowledge production processes. To do so, the case study is presented in two parts. The first one examines the theoretical foundations and the organisation of two specific courses on language teaching methodology, courses whose epistemological approach aligns with decoloniality and narrative documentation of learning experiences. In the second part, essays produced by student teachers enrolled in these courses are analysed thematically to discuss evidence of how the course resonates on student teachers’ knowledge of more culturally sensitive and socially relevant educational principles and practices. This double-folded analysis reveals the transversality of social justice principles and practices in student teachers’ process of becoming English language teachers and language educators with a sense of belonging to all-embracing commitments of the profession.

Pre-service language teachers’ resistance to teacher trainer advice on task design for video-mediated L2 interaction

ABSTRACT In pre-service language teacher education contexts, it is challenging to provide hands-on training on task design for technology-mediated settings. This study presents insights from language teacher education activities that aim to tackle this challenge with a multi-step approach consisting of (1) pre-service teachers’ collaborative task design conversations in groups, (2) whole-class feedback sessions, (3) implementation of the tasks by actual L2 learners via video-mediated interaction, and (4) pre-service teachers’ reflective practices based on the recordings of video-mediated task implementations. We present two cases across these multi-step activities by closely examining the teacher training classroom interactions using Conversation Analysis and also by drawing on the written task design sheets and reflections on video-mediated interactions. More specifically, we document the central role that pre-service teachers’ resistance to teacher trainer advice plays in displaying and defending their knowledge about the technological and pedagogical aspects of their task design. We conclude that resistance practices create multiple teacher learning opportunities and maximise space for pre-service teachers’ displays of knowledge about task design for video-mediated L2 interactions.

Technology in Language Education Course: Operationalizing TPCK in Preservice Language Teacher Education

This study examines the experiences and attitude of the first cohort of students who took a discipline-focused educational technology course in a teacher education institution. This course, Technology in Language Education, utilize Technological, Pedagogical, Content Knowledge (TPCK) framework to train 107 preservice teachers to utilize and innovate with technological tools. The results of the post-evaluation questionnaires answered by 58 of these preservice teachers suggest the achievement of both the program and course learning outcomes. In the follow-up surveys conducted after practicum and during their first year of teaching, evidence of knowledge and skill transfer were expressed. Furthermore, lesson plans evaluated using Harris, Grandgenett, and Hofer's (2010) TPACK-Based Technology Integration Rubric imply the students’ fulfillment of the learning outcomes of the course.

Tracking telecollaborative tasks through design, feedback, implementation, and reflection processes in pre-service language teacher education

Abstract Telecollaborative exchanges between students from different countries are increasingly becoming a common practice in foreign language education and calling for new teacher competences for task design in order to maximize interactional opportunities in these settings. Considering that tasks are dynamic in nature and subject to constant change from their initial design to implementation by L2 learners, there is a need for teacher training activities promoting opportunities for improving the required digital and pedagogical competences. With this in mind, this paper sets out to explore the interactional architecture of the multiple steps involved in the training of pre-service language teachers in pedagogical task design for telecollaboration-oriented video-mediated interactional settings. We describe the procedural unfolding of the telecollaborative tasks by analyzing (i) pre-service teachers’ collaborative design meetings and (ii) written design reports; (iii) peer and mentor evaluation of these design ideas in whole-class feedback sessions in teacher training classrooms; (iv) written reports of redesigns after the feedback session, (v) video-mediated implementation by telecollaborative task participants, and finally (vi) pre-service teachers’ written reflections based on the implementation of their own designs. We use Conversation Analysis to closely examine audio and screen-recording data and draw on the textual data to present the procedural unfolding of two tasks over multiple phases, namely design, feedback, implementation, and reflection. The findings show that a telecollaborative task is a co-construction by the pre-service teachers as task designers, the teacher trainer as the mentor, and the L2 learners as the end users in interactionally trackable ways across the teacher education events. The results bring insights into the novel sets of digital, pedagogical, and interactional competencies in L2 contexts. We conclude that task enhanced telecollaboration holds great potential to critically advance research and practice in L2 teaching and teacher education worldwide.

Reflective practice strategies of pre-service English teachers during teaching practicum to promote professional development

Reflective practice in pre-service language teacher education is required as a tool to critically evaluate the link between theory and practice as well as to explore the beliefs and practices of pre-service English teachers during the teaching practicum programs. This study was aimed to explore the strategies of reflective practice used by pre-service English teachers during their teaching practicum to promote professional development. A case study was adopted as a research design and reflective journals were employed to collect data. The participants involved were six pre-service English teachers who had joined teaching practicum at schools for three months. This study employed thematic analysis for analysing the data from reflective journals. The results revealed that three strategies of reflective practice were identified: recollection, reflection-in-action, and mentoring process. In each strategy, the participants reflected differently based on the learning experiences they had, the teaching situation they faced, the ability to make decisions, and the beliefs they possessed. Through these strategies, they learned how to develop their own theories of teaching, how to make various links between theory and practice, and how to develop the level of thinking, problem solving, and decision making. If these strategies are continuously conducted, they ultimately can develop their professionalism as teachers. This study implies that reflective practice can also be incorporated in the curriculum of pre-service teachers and not only during teaching practicum since it entails huge benefits for pre-service English teacher development.

Initial English language teacher education: the effects of a module on teacher research

ABSTRACT Framed in action research, the authors investigated the perceptions and experiences of a cohort of student-teachers as they learned about and explored for the first time teacher research in a self-contained module as part of a four-year pre-service or initial English language teacher education (IELTE) programme in southern Argentina. The module, ‘Research in English Language Teaching’, ran from March–November 2018. It was led by a teacher educator based in Argentina and a UK-based colleague who acted as an external academic advisor. Drawing on qualitative research, data collection strategies included: the tutor’s journal; student-teachers’ journals; assignments; research proposals; report drafts; presentations; group discussions; interactions between the tutors; and end-of-course interviews. The findings show that the module had a positive effect on student-teachers’ identity, their English language proficiency, and the role of reflection in feedback processes. The student-teachers appreciated teacher research as reflective practice and as a source of professional development.

A case study of Turkish pre-service teachers of English in an international exchange program: ELF and WE perspectives

Study/Teach abroad experiences, are shown to impact prospective teachers’ beliefs and values, offering exposure to diverse educational systems and teaching philosophies. This qualitative exploratory case study aimed to investigate the impact of the Comenius language assistantship program on the sociolinguistic perspectives and meaning schemes of Turkish pre-service teachers of English, in different intercultural educational contexts in Europe between 2011 and 2014. It incorporated both English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) and World Englishes (WE) perspectives. The theoretical framework in the study is Mezirow’s (1991) transformative learning theory. The data, collected via semi-structured interviews and reflective journals, were analyzed via content analysis. The findings indicated that although their social and educational backgrounds affected their interpretations of international teaching experiences, participants seemed to share an overarching sociolinguistic perspective. Changes emerged in four meaning schemes: inclusive pedagogical practices, teaching and learning English from the ELF- and WE-aware perspectives, creative and critical thinking activities, as well as intercultural awareness. The study underscored the necessity of integrating the following issues into pre-service language teacher education programs: intercultural awareness, competence, and communication, as well as linguistic and cultural diversity. The findings also emphasized the teacher educators’ role as facilitators in terms of enhancing the transformative potential of the international teaching experiences.

Pre-service English teachers’ reflective engagement with stories of exploratory action research

ABSTRACT This paper investigates how reading and reflecting upon research published by other teachers could impact pre-service teachers in a language teacher education programme at a university in the west of Turkey. Adopting a holistic single case as the qualitative research approach, the study involved 53 first-year pre-service English teachers who were taking the course Reading Skills at the time for the current research and used data collected through written reflections and think-aloud protocols. We analysed the data through thematic analysis which revealed two major impact-based themes including conceptions of being a teacher and exploring teacher self. These helped us qualify the dimensions of the impact of reading and discussing stories of exploratory action research on the process of learning and development of pre-service language teachers. Drawing on our study, we offer implications for English language teachers and educators in pre-service language teacher education programmes.

English language testing and evaluation course through the lens of EFL student teachers

Researchers have promulgated the idea that the rapid and continuous changes in foreign language teaching environment put new demands on language teacher education programs. Accordingly, recent debates have centered on fundamental issues: testing, evaluation and assessment and have been investigated by a burgeoning number of studies at tertiary level. Thus, the current study aimed at revealing EFL student teachers’ perceptions of assessment and evaluation, touching upon their expectations for better assessment, and scrutinizing their needs of assessment. A total of 39 senior students in Ondokuz Mayıs University at the English Language Teaching (ELT) program participated in the study. The research adopted a qualitative research design. Data were gathered through semi-structured interviews, and analyzed using selective coding. The findings indicated that student teachers perceived a great need of training in English language assessment, and lack of deep insights into testing and evaluation process. Another noteworthy finding was the majority of the participants agree that “English Language Testing and Evaluation” (henceforth ELTE) course should be offered just before graduation in language education program. Further, it was ascertained that almost all student teachers remarked the contribution of ELTE course for their own future careers and they put suggestions about the content of the course by listing three topics to be taught in the ELTE course. Lastly, the study offered suggestions for pre-service language teacher education programs on English language assessment and evaluation in Turkish higher education setting.

Developing classroom mediation awareness and skills in pre-service language teacher education

The introduction of mediation as the fourth mode of communication into the CEFR has the potential to revolutionise language teaching. The development of teachers’ competence in this area has become a challenge for teacher training. The paucity of curricula and courses aimed at developing pre-service teachers’ awareness and competence in mediating communication has motivated this research, and the article is intended to serve two main purposes, namely, to identify mediation activities performed by in-service teachers and to outline strategies of training preservice teachers. Research methodology included both qualitative analysis of 15 video-recorded lesson transcripts and quantitative analysis of a survey of 100 pre-service teachers of English in Russia. The lessons by Russian in-service teachers of English were analyzed to find evidence of classroom mediation and the survey was conducted to discover their familiarity with the CEFR and to elicit their views on the changes needed in teacher training after the appearance of the CEFR Companion Volume. The results indicate that communicating ideas and concepts lies at the core of classroom interaction, and thus special training is needed for language teachers to perform it. The practical implications of this study include a sample of piloted tasks for various proficiency levels aimed at facilitating the pre-service teachers’ awareness of mediation and the ability to perform it in the classroom.